Hareidi IDF Rabbi: 'Hate is Creating a New Tisha B'Av'

The attempt to force hareidi religious yeshiva students to enlist in the IDF is a mistake, said Rabbi Yoel Schwartz, a top IDF official

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David Lev, 11/07/13 09:22

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The attempt to force hareidi religious yeshiva students to enlist in the IDF is a huge mistake that will rip Israeli society apart, said the man who knows perhaps more than any Israeli about hareidi service in the IDF – Rabbi Yoel Schwartz, the man who first came up with the idea for the Nachal Hareidi program and pushed for its adoption.

In an interview with Army Radio, Schwartz said that the attack on an IDF soldier from the hareidi community earlier this week by a hareidi mob in Meah Shearim could be a sign of things to come. “It is as if we are creating a new Tisha B'av,” he said, referring to the fast days when Jews fast and commemorate the destruction of previous Jewish national commonwealths. “We have a clash between two world views, and they are failing to respect each other's beliefs.”

The issue for the hareidi religious community is not how many or few students are allowed to remain n yeshiva, but the fact that yeshiva students are being drafted at all. “When I order somebody to do something I am in control of them,” he said. “As hareidi Jews, we feel that the secular government is foreign to us” and is trying to control them.